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U.S. Capitol Becomes Fortress Ahead Of Inauguration; Trump Impeachment Trial Won't Begin Until After Inauguration; California Builds Mass Vaccination Sites; Biden Outlines U.S. Vaccination Plan; Health Care Collapsing In Manaus; Domestic Terrorists Pose Most Likely Threat To Inauguration; U.K. To Implement New Travel Restrictions; Edinburgh Doctor Chronicles COVID-19 Experience; Yoweri Museveni Will Accept Election Results. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired January 16, 2021 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hi. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. Coming up on the show, unheeded warnings. What a new report says about intelligence failures ahead of the siege in Washington.
Also, heavy security has D.C. looking like a fortress ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration. And it's not the only city fearing violence.
Meanwhile, the president-elect is outlining his plan to handle the pandemic but it does come with a with a warning.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Robyn Curnow.
CURNOW: So we are learning shocking new details about last week's deadly insurrection at the United States Capitol. "The Washington Post" reports that three days earlier the Capitol police that had provided security for lawmakers had actually issued an internal warning about potential unrest against Congress on January 6th.
Yet neither the FBI nor the Department of Homeland Security provided any threat assessment leading up to that mob attack.
In the aftermath of the violence that killed five people, the Capitol has become a fortress ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration next Wednesday. The Pentagon has increased the number of National Guard troops to 25,000 to protect the Capitol during the ceremony.
The FBI is warning that armed groups loyal to the president aim to disrupt the inauguration, even though the Capitol and National Mall are effectively sealed off. The threat by domestic extremists also extends to all 50 state capitals, many of which have taken extraordinary security precautions.
I want to get more on all of this from CNN's Alex Marquardt in Washington.
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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): The American Capitol now a fortress, unprecedented scenes as Washington and the country brace for more violence around Joe Biden's inauguration.
MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM J. WALKER, D.C. NATIONAL GUARD: People should be aware that we have a new national security environment we're operating in.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): A new bulletin from the country's main security agencies warning, domestic extremists who believe the election was stolen from Donald Trump are the main threats.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mayor Bowser --
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Today, D.C.'s mayor, police, Secret Service and others, trying to reassure a nervous country, the inauguration will go well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's all hands-on deck for our entire agency.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): New 12-foot fencing with concrete bases around the Capitol complex, the National Mall officially closed until after the inauguration. Threats being monitored across the country. At least a dozen states have activated the National Guard to secure their capitals.
MATT MILLER, USSS WASHINGTON FIELD OFFICE: We have so many assets inside the Penn Quarter Capitol area that there is the potential for people to go elsewhere whether it's back to their state capitals or to other parts of the city.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Few specific threats, the FBI says, but lots of worrying chatter.
CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: We are seeing an extensive amount of concerning online chatter.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Now 9 days after the storming of the Capitol building, we are learning how much worse things could've been. A terrifying new revelation: "The Washington Post" reporting that vice president Mike Pence was even closer to the rioters than previously known.
"The Post" reporting that, as this heroic officer led rioters away from the Senate chamber, Pence and his family were less than 100 feet away in another room, reportedly staying out of the view of the mob by mere seconds.
D.C. police officers are now describing their terrifying ordeals to CNN.
MICHAEL FANONE, METROPOLITAN POLICE OFFICER: I was beaten from like every direction and then tased a number of times on the back of my neck. And then some guy started getting a hold of my gun and they were screaming out, you know, "Kill him with his own gun."
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Officer Daniel Hodges was brutally crushed in a doorway as rioters charged in.
OFFICER DANIEL HODGES, METROPOLITAN POLICE: There was a guy ripping my mask off and he was able to rip away my baton and beat me with it. And he was practically foaming at the mouth.
MARQUARDT: Just horrifying stories from those Capitol police officers. Now we are learning that there may be even more National Guard troops on the streets of Washington, D.C. The Pentagon on Friday authorizing up to 25,000 National Guard troops for the inauguration of Joe Biden.
That is 4,000 more than had previously been authorized. They come from every state, territory and the District of Columbia. It bears repeating that that is four times the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria combined -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.
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CURNOW: Thanks, Alex, for that report.
So President Trump's role in stirring up the mob led to his unprecedented second impeachment. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to send that single article to the Senate next week.
The Senate leadership has signaled it will not begin a trial until after Biden's inauguration because there isn't enough time to conduct a proper trial in the few remaining days of the Trump presidency.
As for the president himself, he's expected to exploit the perks of his office right until the last minute, as Jim Acosta reports.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even as he carries the shameful stamp of being impeached twice, president Trump is planning to leave the White House with one last "dear leader" moment. On the morning before Joe Biden's inauguration, the White House is expected to stage a grand departure ceremony for Trump that may include a color guard, military band, 21-gun salute and red carpet.
Unlike his own inauguration when he was greeted by Barack and Michelle Obama, Trump won't do the same for the Bidens. After last week's bloody siege at the Capitol, Trump allies say it's probably better that way.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Maybe that's best now given the situation we're in and it seems to me the president is ready to move on.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And may God continue to bless the United States of America.
ACOSTA: Vice President Mike Pence is expected to attend Biden's inauguration, another sign he's all but become the nation's acting commander in chief. On Thursday, he called his successor Kamala Harris to congratulate her after thanking National Guard members for protecting the capitol.
PENCE: Thank you all for stepping forward to serve your country.
ACOSTA: Pence was at the capitol and fled the rioters as some were trying to hunt him down.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants an investigation into whether some members of Congress aided the insurrectionists.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): If, in fact, it is found that members of Congress were accomplices to this insurrection, if they aided and abetted the crime, there may have to be actions taken beyond the Congress in terms of prosecution for that.
ACOSTA: That could include lawmakers like Republican Mo Brooks of Alabama.
REP. MO BROOKS (R-AL): Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.
ACOSTA: Questions have also been raised about White House involvement as well as top aides and members of the Trump family were on hand for the rally that sparked the violence.
DONALD TRUMP, JR., EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Mark Meadows, an actual fighter, one of the few.
ACOSTA: Before his own speech at that rally --
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.
ACOSTA: -- CNN has learned the president was back in touch with his former strategist Steve Bannon discussing Trump's election conspiracy theories. Sources say Bannon who's facing federal fraud charges is seeking a pardon from Trump.
Back in November, Bannon called for administration officials to be executed.
STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: I'd put the heads on pikes, right? I'd put them at the two corners of the White House, as a warning to federal bureaucrats.
ACOSTA: A source familiar with the planning for Trump's departure says the soon to be ex-president doesn't have any events on his schedule after he arrives in Palm Beach, Florida, on Biden's Inauguration Day.
One thing the president will not be able to do is tweet. A Twitter spokesman reaffirmed to CNN that Trump will remain permanently suspended on the social media platform even after he leaves office -- Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.
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CURNOW: CNN Political Analyst, Toluse Olorunnipa joins me now from New York. He's also the White House reporter for "The Washington Post."
Great to see you. I want to get your take on these intelligence failures ahead of that riot on January 6th. We know a number of the agencies failed to disseminate intelligence and we're seeing the impact of that, which is fortress D.C.
TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. A number of my colleagues at "The Washington Post" reported that the FBI was warning in the days ahead of this riot that there were thousands of people who were headed to D.C. and this was not going to be the run-of-the-mill rally that President Trump often leads, that this was much more intense, many more people.
And it could have the potential for violence and mayhem and the Congress. And I think, in hindsight, it's really jarring to know that the FBI and a number of these intelligence agencies were aware that there were so many people coming to D.C. and there were not enough preparations made to prepare, whether it be National Guard or the Capitol police, to be prepared for this large influx of people.
CURNOW: Looking ahead, the politics of this, Nancy Pelosi steaming ahead with articles of impeachment, what do you think the impact is going to be, particularly in the Republican Party?
Do you see many more senators dumping Trump after Biden takes office?
Or do you see Mr. Trump's hold over the party remaining?
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CURNOW: Even as he's facing the Senate trial?
OLORUNNIPA: Yes; how the president responds and acts over the next few days could determine what kind of response he gets on the Senate. We did see 10 Republicans on the House side decide cross the aisle. We have heard from Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell that he has not made up his mind yet about impeachment.
If he decides to vote and convict this president, you could see upwards of a dozen Republican senators follow him. We already have a number of senators, like Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Ben Sasse, essentially say they're going to vote to convict this president.
If you have about a dozen more, you could get to that two-thirds threshold. The president would be either removed from office or more likely he would be barred from holding office ever in the future and unable to run for president again in 2024.
The Republican Party is trying to decide whether it wants to be the Trump party or revert to its old principles of conservativism and having the president barred from running for office again in the future. Could allow Republicans to take control of the party that President Trump has been in control of for the past four years.
But there are people who support the president who don't want that to happen. They want his image to continue to be the image of the party. And that may end up being what determines how this vote goes because there are a number of Republicans who continue to be beholding to the president and don't want to cross him.
So maybe hard to get the number of Republicans necessary to have the president convicted. But I do expect some of them to cross the aisle and vote to convict him alongside the vast majority of Democrats.
CURNOW: And how does President Biden, after he takes office, unify people in this climate?
OLORUNNIPA: That will be a very difficult task. He has to balance the idea that the Senate is going to be holding an impeachment trial at the same time he wants the Senate to be confirming hundreds of positions with him and his administration.
So he needs that to happen at the same time this impeachment trial is going and to try to unify the country around the major challenges that we face, from the coronavirus, the economic downturn, some of the issues of racial injustice that have erupted over the past year.
So he has a lot on his plate. I don't think he wants to spend as much time focusing on the past, focusing on the past president. He wants to focus on the future and see how he can try to bring Democrats and Republicans together.
But it's going to be a very difficult task when an impeachment trial is going on in the earliest days of his administration.
CURNOW: Toluse Olorunnipa, thank you very much for joining us.
OLORUNNIPA: Thank you.
CURNOW: So still ahead, the U.S. president-elect lays out ambitious plans for tackling the pandemic. But Joe Biden and his team really do face a difficult task. More on the challenges after the break.
And in the spiraling COVID crisis in Brazil's Amazonas state, hospitals are overwhelmed and there is not enough oxygen for the patients who need it. That story, also ahead.
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CURNOW: Welcome back. The CDC has warned that people need to double down on protections
including washing hands and wearing masks. More than 12 million doses have been administered to 10.6 million people but there is a long way to go. Paul Vercammen has more from hardhit California. Paul.
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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Finally, some good news in COVID-19 ravaged Southern California. Two mega COVID-19 vaccination sites now open, one at Disneyland, one here at Dodger Stadium.
Now they opened just as Southern California is feeling the ravages of holiday get-togethers and a subsequent outbreak. Two signs of this, on the mortuary grounds, a freezer truck, filled with bodies, because there isn't enough room inside the funeral home.
Then, in a hospital, they're treating patients. The hospital is overwhelmed inside a gift shop. But here at Dodger Stadium, they began the vaccinations. Health care workers, driving through, they started with an estimate of vaccinating 2,000 people in the first day, ramping it up to 4,000 it was going so well.
So this is a reason for optimism for the organizers.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the same time, it is when we see the folk actually getting those vaccines out into their arms it is all of those things kind of fade away.
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VERCAMMEN: The goal here at Dodger Stadium is vaccinate 12,000 people per day, they say they have enough of the vaccine to last themselves until Wednesday, they are not sure if the supply will continue and they've heard the reports about the supply shrinking fast.
But they say they will dig in and keep putting needles into arms, here, at Dodger Stadium -- reporting from Los Angeles, I am Paul Vercammen, now back to you.
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CURNOW: So the COVID vaccines used in the U.S. require two doses to be effective. But the U.S. no longer has a stockpile of second doses in reserve. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar made the stunning admission on Friday.
He will be stepping down on Inauguration Day, as would be expected. For some time, the Trump administration has insisted it stockpiled doses to ensure those who got one shot could get the second on time. But in an interview, he said that wasn't the case.
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ALEX AZAR, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: No, there is not a reserve stockpile. We now have enough confidence that our ongoing production will be quality and available to provide the second dose for people. So we are not sitting on a reserve anymore. We have made that available to the states to order.
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CURNOW: President-Elect Joe Biden has now laid out an ambitious agenda. But that doesn't mean he's sugar-coating his warnings about the situation; quite the opposite, in fact, as M.J. Lee reports.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Things will get worse before they get better.
M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President-Elect Joe Biden addressing the spiraling COVID-19 pandemic for the second day in a row.
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LEE (voice-over): This time, taking on one of his most daunting challenges as future president: quickly vaccinating the country.
BIDEN: Look, our plan is as clear as it is bold: get more people vaccinated for free. Create more places for them to get vaccinated. Mobilize more medical teams to get the shots in people's arms.
LEE (voice-over): Biden promising to streamline the vaccination process with the federal government much more involved by establishing national vaccination centers, leaning on FEMA and the National Guard and launching a nationwide public education campaign.
The president-elect also vowing to significantly speed up both the pace of vaccine production and getting shots into Americans' arms.
BIDEN: We're going to use the full strength of the federal government to ramp up supply of the vaccines. As I said before, we'll use the Defense Production Act to work with private industry to accelerate the making of materials needed to supply and administer the vaccine.
LEE (voice-over): Biden also calling out some Republican members of Congress for refusing to wear masks last week during the lockdown after rioters stormed the halls of Congress.
BIDEN: It's shocking to see members of the Congress, while the Capitol was under siege by a deadly mob of thugs, refusing to wear a mask while in secure locations.
What the hell is the matter with them?
It's time to grow up.
LEE (voice-over): Biden on Friday also naming Dr. David Kessler, the former head of the FDA, to help lead his federal vaccine efforts. The new administration also getting rid of the name of the program launched under President Trump to quickly develop COVID vaccines, Operation Warp Speed.
All of this an attempt to take a starkly different approach from the outgoing Trump administration.
BIDEN: The vaccine rollout in the United States has been a dismal failure thus far.
LEE: And to give a sense of the somber mood of Joe Biden's COVID team right now, CNN spoke with Jeff Zients, the COVID coordinator for Joe Biden.
He told us what they're inheriting from the Trump administration is worse than what they could have ever imagined. He also said there is currently no infrastructure in place to get the vaccines distributed -- M.J. Lee, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.
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CURNOW: Brazil's Amazonas state is airlifting a number of premature babies out of the area because of a shortage of oxygen. Coronavirus has depleted hospital resources and left the health care system on the verge of collapse, as Isa Soares now reports.
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ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Manaus, the Brazilian city at the heart of the world's Amazon, is gasping for air. Relatives here are rushing to buy oxygen cylinders to save their loved ones suffering with COVID-19.
The lady on the right, pleads for help in moving the oxygen tank to help her 80-year-old father who has the virus. His family tells us, unfortunately, he did not make it.
Most here blaming the government for failing to impose a lockdown in December. Now anger has spread, as hospitals dealing with a mass influx of COVID-19 patients run out of beds and oxygen supplies.
Infections are so high, in fact, authorities say demand for oxygen is up fivefold in the last 15 (ph) days. This man said he was able to buy an oxygen cylinder from the family of someone who died.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The only way to save my mother was to chase down oxygen, asking for help from acquaintances and friends, because it was the only way to let her live.
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SOARES (voice-over): Hospitals have not been able to keep up with demand and those who can source or afford their own tanks are facing impossible odds.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): My sister was in a rush and they asked her to come immediately. That is when she found out that my mother had passed away, at 4 in the morning.
What caused it?
The lack of oxygen.
SOARES (voice-over): Exhausted medical staff have been keeping patients alive by doing manual compressions but it simply, isn't enough. Now they are pleading for help.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I ask all of you for mercy. We are in a deplorable situation. The oxygen in one of our health units, simply, ran out. And there is no oxygen and a lot of people dying.
If anyone has oxygen available, please, bring it to the emergency area of the clinic. For the love of God, there are a lot of people dying.
SOARES (voice-over): The minister of health together with the governor of the Amazon, are warning of a health care system in total chaos.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Today, the Amazonas state, to which the world directs its attention, when there is an issue related to the preservation of the environment, is clamoring. It is asking for help.
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SOARES (voice-over): The Brazilian air force has stepped in, delivering 6 emergency cylinders of oxygen, totaling almost 10,000 kilograms. Hundreds of patients have been airlifted to other Brazilian states for treatment.
The government meanwhile says that there was no way of predicting the collapse in Manaus. The medical professionals and local officials, say their repeated warnings were ignored -- Isa Soares, CNN.
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CURNOW: Coming up, after last week's deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, the inauguration of Joe Biden next week will put all of their experience to the test. We'll show you, that's next.
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CURNOW: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Robyn Curnow. It's 29 minutes past the hour.
So presidents' inaugurations in the U.S. are usually celebrations, hundreds of thousands of Americans attend in person, celebrating a seamless transition of power from one administration to the next.
This time is much, much different. Last week's deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has cast a heavy pall over the event. The government warns domestic extremists are intent in disrupting it if they can. Shimon Prokupecz tells us what's being done to stop it.
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SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE PRODUCER: A mostly deserted Washington, D.C., really just surrounded by military here. You have a one truck here blocking cars and another one here and then there are two more here behind us.
[04:30:00]
All of this for the security and in anticipation of the inauguration. Also these concrete barriers that officials have placed all along the downtown Washington D.C. It seems one of the things that officials are very concerned about is vehicles, cars coming into the zone. So they set up blockades all along the downtown area of Washington, D.C., around the Capitol as a safely measure.
Also, National Guard troops, more arriving by the busload. I've seen at least half a dozen buses arriving, filled with National Guard troops. The Pentagon today announcing that they've upped the amount of National Guard troops to 25,000.
This is all in anticipation of the inauguration and out of concern that the city here -- Washington, D.C. -- faces in the days to come -- Shimon Prokupecz, CNN, Washington.
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CURNOW: Well, the heavy military presence in Washington for the inauguration is making the nation's Capitol look and feel much different than usual. Pete Muntean asked the commander of the D.C. National Guard about that.
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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What's your message to folks who see just the sheer volume of Guards men out in front the Capitol today and some compared it to looking more like a foreign occupation or military overseas, like a war zone?
How tough is that classification to you and how would you classify it?
MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM J. WALKER, D.C. NATIONAL GUARD: So this is not a war zone. Anybody who's been in a war knows that this is not a war zone.
What you have here is a community based organization. It's part of the United States military, the Guard. But we are citizen soldiers and airmen. And we represent the communities we serve in.
So it's not a military occupation. But most of all, Americans should be assured that the Guard is out here in support of the lead federal agency, the United States Secret Service, and that the 59th presidential inauguration will be peaceful. (END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Besides prosecuting those responsible for the insurrection of the Capitol, investigators are haunted by one troubling question.
Why did security on that day go so wrong?
Here's Ryan Nobles with that.
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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still dealing with the fallout from the riots that took place on Capitol Hill on January 6th. And she announced this week that she is going to ask Russel Honore, the general who came in to help with Katrina recovery when things were falling apart in New Orleans, to oversee looking into questions as to exactly what went wrong on the Capitol as it relates to security on that day.
The Speaker being asked by a number of her members to appoint an independent commission to look into it and a variety of other things. This is the first step that the Speaker plans to take.
This comes against the backdrop of the impeachment proceedings that just took place this week. House Democrats, along with a handful of Republicans, impeaching President Trump for the second time.
The question is when will the Senate take up those articles of impeachment?
Pelosi said she plans to send those articles to the Senate sometime next week. It seems likely that they won't be in the Senate until after the Senate majority is in the hands of Democrats.
The question, though, remains, will there be enough Republicans that will join with Democrats to ultimately convict President Trump?
The current Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who won't be the majority leader for much longer, could hold the keys to whether or not that becomes a reality. It's something we may not get the answer to until after the inauguration is in the rearview mirror -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: So just ahead here on CNN as well, new restrictions for the U.K. as more COVID variants emerge around the world. We'll find out how the British government is cracking down on international travelers. We have that story.
Plus I'll talk to a doctor in Scotland for a first-hand account of his experiences on the front lines of the pandemic. That's next.
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CURNOW: It's 36 minutes past the hour. Welcome back.
The emergence of several COVID variants around the world is forcing the United Kingdom to implement new measures in order to stem the spread of the disease. On Monday, they will begin forcing restrictions on all international travel into the U.K. from any country outside the common travel area of the U.K.
Dependencies including Jersey and Ireland. Scott McLean is joining us now from London.
This is certainly a radical move from Westminster.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's right, Robyn. And the U.K., frankly, cannot afford for things to get very much worse. They have their own new, faster spreading variant of the virus to contend with, that is ripping through the population and they are concerned about other mutations, particularly the ones in Brazil, ending up here.
The concern is that one of those mutations could be more resistant to a vaccine. At the moment, there are a number of countries with pretty low infection rates, where you can come into the U.K. without having to do the normal quarantine.
But starting on Monday, that list is disappearing altogether. There will be no exceptions. If you come to the country from anywhere on the planet, you will not only have to have a negative test but, on top of that, you will have to do that mandatory 10-day quarantine period.
I want to show you a graph right now that illustrates how quickly these infections have popped up across the U.K., starting in December. The red line there is the U.K. The orange line is Ireland.
And what's interesting there is about half of the cases that the -- the new cases that are showing up there are this faster spreading U.K. variant. The U.K. is in the midst of a national lockdown but it has made enormous progress when it comes to vaccinations.
Almost half of people who are over 80 and who are in care homes that had their shots already but it is also true that hospital admissions are at their highest point, the highest that they've been since the beginning of the pandemic. Here is the prime minister yesterday.
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BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: It would be fatal if the sense of progress were now to breed any kind of complacency because the pressures on the NHS are extraordinary. This is not the time for the slightest relaxation of our national resolve and our individual efforts.
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MCLEAN: So the prime minister acknowledged that, because of the pressure created by the coronavirus on the health care system, ICUs are spilling into other wards and things like cancer treatments are being postponed.
The government's goal is to get the most vulnerable groups, the top four most vulnerable groups, vaccinated by the middle of February.
[04:40:00]
MCLEAN: That in theory should take pressure off the health care system. But in the meantime, things are expected to get much worse before they get better, Robyn.
CURNOW: Thanks, Scott.
So my next guest has written about his front line experience in battling the coronavirus and his general practice and at a homeless clinic in Edinburgh, Scotland. In his book, "Intensive Care," Dr. Gavin Francis is critical of the slow government response. This is what he wrote.
"We've been like toddlers on the beach, fascinated by the waves edging ever closer up the sand but who still squeal with shock when the water rolls over our toes. None of us could be persuaded to jump back until the disease was already on us."
I want to bring in Dr. Francis.
Lovely to have you on the show. Thank you very much.
Are you -- you heard the reporter from London.
Are you a supporter of the U.K.'s borders being shut down?
Is this a case of lessons learned and the government is no longer squealing at the water rolling over its toes?
DR. GAVIN FRANCIS, PHYSICIAN AND AUTHOR: Absolutely. I personally would have wished that we had done this months and months and months ago. I've got friends that have been traveling in and out of China.
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FRANCIS: -- and we see how quickly China managed to control the spread of the virus. So, yes, I wish we had had mandatory testing right from the outset, I wish we had had a way of obliging people to quarantine rather than leaving it up to their own conscience.
CURNOW: Scotland has had tougher restrictions than some parts of England. You've seen the impact of lockdowns on mental health, school closings. It seems like it's been a binary choice between isolation or being sick.
How difficult has that been to navigate as a doctor? FRANCIS: Yes. It's been very difficult for me. As you say, Robyn, I work in the community as a general practitioner, a family physician. So right from the outset, my whole world has been turned upside down but not as people might expect, by having to deal with the virus. I've had some patients die with the virus. I've had quite a few patients (INAUDIBLE).
All of my patients' lives have been turned upside down by restriction. What I wanted to highlight in this book is the way that our lives have been so dominated, not by the virus itself but by what we have had to do to control the virus.
In terms of mental health, (INAUDIBLE), really doing terrible the rise in mental health problems from alcoholism, panic attack, (INAUDIBLE), self-harm. This year has been very, very difficult from that point of view.
CURNOW: How do you manage that?
You write about very powerfully how the pandemic is changing medicine for family doctors like you. You're into pastoral care, I suppose, on the ground there.
So what has been the most difficult part of this?
FRANCIS: Well, you know, in medicine, we're taught to always see the patient, always examine the patient. It's important to feel like you're doing a good professional job is to cast your eye over things face-to-face.
And the most pernicious aspects of this virus is the fact that it has so many people spread asymptomatically and also that it is spread through most basic elements of our humanity, you know, through touch, through voice.
So I normally would see 25 to 30 patients face-to-face in a day. For the last year, I've only been able to see five or six and even that is behind visors, plastic, double pairs of gloves, minimum numbers of people allowed into the waiting room.
And that has been the most extraordinary revolution in the way we practice medicine and it's one that I hope will not prove enduring. I dearly want to get back to the way of practicing medicine that I was trained in and that I love.
CURNOW: In the book you talk about "the great faff," which is having to put on the gloves, the apron, all the PPE for the patients that you do see.
How does that change things?
You also want to give someone a hug when you're giving them bad news.
FRANCIS: Oh, well, you can't, as I say. So the part of the book that describes that, the great faff, is when my -- part of my job involves going out and doing visits in people's homes to assess people that are housebound, to be able to make it to the hospital for assessment.
In that case, you know, I have to speak to them on the phone, first from the car outside the house. I have to ask them to come sit to their front door as close as possible so I don't need to go into a potentially infective household.
I have to gown up with this plastic and visors and masks and two pairs of gloves (INAUDIBLE) as possible and then have the conversation about what needs to happen over the telephone from outside, rather than spend time with the patient, maybe putting a hand on their shoulder or being able to support them in that way. Yes, very difficult.
CURNOW: You work in Edinburgh.
[04:45:00]
CURNOW: But I think your story is replicated around the world.
What do you think doctors -- what is the commonality between your story and doctors around the world?
FRANCIS: Yes, I think we're all facing an (INAUDIBLE) cataclysm of this pandemic. No matter where you are, whoever you are, (INAUDIBLE), the virus is going to get to the same way through direct human contact and it's going to infect the human body in the same way. So I've been impressed by the kind of fraternity of clinicians across the world, not just doctors and nurses, all kinds of health care workers have come together.
The speed with which vaccines have been developed, knowledge has been shared, has been truly unprecedented and extraordinary.
CURNOW: Dr. Gavin Francis, thank you very much. The author of "Intensive Care," it's a beautiful book. And thank you for all the work that you're doing out there every single day. Appreciate it.
FRANCIS: Thanks, Robyn.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Coming up, Kamala Harris is making history when we come back. A special sneak peek of our CNN special with the vice president-elect.
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[04:50:00]
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CURNOW: Live from CNN Center, I'm Robyn Curnow.
Uganda's electoral commission is expected to declare a winner in their presidential election today. But opposition presidential candidate Bobi Wine tweeted that he was under siege and that the military had taken control. His phone was blocked and Internet shut down.
Journalists tried to speak with him and they were turned away. But he did tell CNN he was living in fear.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOBI WINE, UGANDAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I fear for my life right now because, in this situation, where the internet is completely blacked out, where all our phones here in the house are blocked.
We cannot make or receive any calls. And it's just me and my wife in the house, surrendered by the military and some people that are not wearing uniforms but they are having assault rifles.
We are fearing for our lives and that is why we are sending a message to all the citizens of the world, to keep their eyes on Uganda. And we are asking all the international community, all the development partners, to hold General Museveni to account, to make sure that they put a precondition of human rights and listen to the rule of law and also hold General Museveni accountable.
They should push him to reinstate Democratic principles, to reinstate the voice of the people of Uganda.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: President Museveni told CNN before the vote that he would accept the results of that election if he lost. We'll continue to monitor that.
Kamala Harris is making history as the first woman, the first African American and the first South Asian American to be elected as president. Her husband is also breaking new ground. CNN's senior political correspondent Abby Phillip sat down with the couple as part of an hour-long special.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So I do want to start all the way at the beginning for the two of you. You guys have -- I'm going to describe it as a Hollywood love story.
KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: My best friend set me up on a blind date. And my best friend can be a little bossy. So I didn't say no.
(LAUGHTER)
DOUG EMHOFF, KAMALA HARRIS' HUSBAND: I had never met her friend before. So I met her friend for an hour in a business meeting as a lawyer. And by the end of the hour, it was like, yes, you seem pretty cool. I might want to set you up with somebody, Kamala Harris.
And I was like, the attorney general?
And she said, yes, but I think you would be great. HARRIS: So he texted me that very same night.
You were at a Lakers game.
EMHOFF: I was.
HARRIS: And I'm a Warriors fan but I said "Go Kobe" or something.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: And then you called me that morning, the next morning.
EMHOFF: I violated every rule of dating, I believe.
HARRIS: We ended up talking for about 45 minutes to an hour and just laughing the whole time.
EMHOFF: I felt like I had known her forever. And we figured out she was going to be in L.A. a couple of days later. And I said, great, we'll go out to dinner.
And I didn't want it to end. So the next morning, I pulled the move of emailing her with my availabilities for the four months, including long weekends.
And I said something like, I'm too old to hide the ball. You're great. I want to see if we can make this work. Here is when I'm available next.
And we saw each other a week or so later.
PHILLIP: That's the part of the story that I think a lot of people will either identify with or be totally terrified by.
How did you feel about that?
HARRIS: I was terrified.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIP: So when it came time to introduce the rest of the family, Cole and Ella, you talked about how that was such a big moment for the two of you.
EMHOFF: She put the brakes on it. She knew how impactful that moment was going to be when I introduced her to the kids. And she wanted it to be right.
HARRIS: I mean, my feeling was that, you know, my parents divorced when I was young. And I know what it's like to be a kid of divorced parents, when your parents start dating other people. And I did not want to bond with the kids if we weren't sure about what we had because I didn't want to do that to the kids.
It was actually more nerve-wracking than our first date.
PHILLIP: How long did it take you to get to the point where you became Mamala?
HARRIS: Not long. We bonded and we bonded as a family and as a -- you know, as we call it, our modern family.
EMHOFF: I think they wanted a term that was just more personalized and expressed.
[04:55:00]
EMHOFF: There is a mom, Kirsten, and there is a Mamala, Kamala. And it evolved out of love.
PHILLIP: Do you worry at all about the strain, the pressure that you are about to experience and what that might mean for your family?
EMHOFF: Look, you always -- and I'm like Papa Bear. I'm always worried about everything, including the people I love.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much, sir, for your big ideas.
PHILLIP: You're very protective of her. I think the entire world saw that literally in 2019, when you jumped up on the stage, when someone was --
HARRIS: Indeed, he did.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIP: Someone -- I mean, you're laughing about it now. But it must be a really scary moment.
EMHOFF: It was. It was.
PHILLIP: Does that make you worry not just about the strains and the stresses but just her physical safety, your physical safety and that of your family?
EMHOFF: You can't go through life like that, Abby. You have to just go through life. There was no way I wasn't jumping up on that stage.
PHILLIP: And you're ready to be the second gentleman of the United States?
EMHOFF: I'm just very humbled by this and honored to be in this position. There has been a lot of great women who have had this role, including Dr. Jill Biden. And I intend to do my best to support her, not only as her husband but as the second gentleman, support her and the president and the administration and use this opportunity for good.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Be sure to watch "Kamala Harris: Making History" Sunday at 10:00 pm Eastern.
That wraps this hour of CNN. Thanks so much for joining me. "NEW DAY" is next. For everyone else, it's "Local Hero."
